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Beginning IB Visual Arts

Welcome to IB Visual Arts. This course promises to be a very challenging and


rewarding experience for those of you who can match it with the effort and time
required for success. For most of you who have had previous art courses at Lovejoy,
this marks an achievement. You wouldn’t be here if the art faculty didn’t feel
confident that you were capable of meeting the rigorous standards that IB Visual Arts
at this school demand. Understand that it is up to you to uphold the expectations that
IB and Lovejoy has of you. You are Lovejoy’s representative to IB.

What you need most at this point is support, guidance and some help getting started
on your two-year artistic journey. It helps to understand that Mrs. Thomas will be
looking for work and development in specific areas as you progress through the year.
There are two primary areas of achievement that will be key to your success in this
class:

1. Studio work – the artworks (both finished and unfinished) that you create at
home and in the studio at LHS.
2. Investigation – the research, idea development, experiments, reflective writing
and relevant preparation that you do to help support and improve your artwork.

Studio work:

Your Studio work will be developed and evaluated according to several key criteria.
Some of them overlap and involve other criteria, and should be considered parts of a
holistic approach to your work. They are:
a. Understanding - This refers to the degree to which your work reflects an
understanding of how one can express concepts and ideas in the visual image, as
well as how well you grasp the technical and formal methods through which these
can be conveyed.
b. Relevance – This refers to the degree to which your work reflects or conveys
personal elements (Where are YOU in the work?); the degree to which your work
shows an awareness and an understanding of socio-cultural issues and concerns;
and finally the degree to which your work shows evidence of well-developed,
complex ideas and approaches to your given theme.
c. Development – This refers to the level of development of both your ideas and
your technical competence with your chosen media or mode of expression.
d. Sensitivity to materials – This criterion concerns your ability to use and in some
cases develop novel uses for your materials. It refers most importantly to your
ability to review and modify your use of materials, so that your work shows
evidence of increasingly well-informed resolutions of concepts and the ideas that
can be conveyed in your work.
e. Technique – This is related to both a and d above. It refers to your mastery and
understanding of the media you have chosen to explore. A student in our IB art
program is free to choose whatever medium he or she wishes, but they must be
able to demonstrate that they have learned a great deal of the handling, potential
and limits of that medium.
f. Confidence – this criterion refers to the degree to which you work shows
evidence of a confident, inventive and wholly personal approach to image-
making, one that does not rely heavily on existing art, historical precedent or
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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011
teacher guidance.
g. Independence – This criterion looks at the degree to which your work shows self-
direction and use of your own judgment. Ultimately, your work must be entirely
your own and should show that you arrived at the visual statement it makes on
your own accord. This has a great deal to do with the above criterion f.

Investigation work:

Your Investigation work will be done primarily in your Investigation workbook – a


hard-covered, sturdy, A4-sized sketchbook that you will make your own. It is
absolutely essential that you acquire such a sketchbook within the first week of
school. Please do so and bring it in to Mrs. Thomas for approval by the end of next
week. Your Investigation work will be developed and evaluated according to several
key criteria. Some of them overlap and involve other criteria, and should be
considered parts of a holistic approach to your book. They are:
a. Cultural/Contextual research – This refers to the degree to which your book
shows that you analyzed, considered, compared and reflected upon art from other
cultures and time periods, especially its function and significance, both within its
original context and today. We do not create art in a vacuum. All art is
interrelated.
b. Technical/Process – this criterion references your book’s ability to display the
degree to which you kept careful record of how you developed effective skills and
awareness of techniques and processes that enabled you to create your studio
pieces. It also refers to work in your book that shows that you developed your
ability to understand and discuss the techniques and methodologies of other
artists.
c. Investigation – This refers to evidence in your book that you developed clear,
coherent strategies for investigating the visual qualities, ideas and their contexts,
and various (ie. More than one) approach to ways of formulating your art. It also
examines how your book shows evidence of connections between all these things.
d. Depth & Breadth – This is a difficult one to understand easily, but you’ll get
used to it. It is like the above criterion c, but most specifically it refers to the
degree to which your book shows evidence that your research and investigations
took in a broad range of influences, ideas and inspirations that helped you to
formulate a successful synthesis of these for your own work. It also looks at the
degree to which you examined these thoroughly, pushing your understanding of
them and helping you to infuse your work with a more informed and articulate
means of expression and meaning.
e. Vocabulary – This criterion examines the evidence in your book that indicates
the degree to which you learned and became familiar with an effective and
accurate specialist vocabulary in the visual arts. A god artist uses the proper
terminology to refer to his or her work and the work of others.
f. Acknowledgment of Sources – As in all your coursework in the IB, it is
important that you cite the sources and origins of the work you do in this class.
This criterion considers the degree to which you accurately and consistently cite
the sources you use in your book.

g. Presentation – This criterion looks at how you present your work in your book.
It considers effective and creative writing regarding your work and the degree to

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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011
which you demonstrate thoughtful, critical evaluations of your work. It also looks
for evidence that you were discriminating in the ways that you chose your
methods and approaches towards your work.
h. Integration – This criterion refers to your book’s relevance to your studio work.
All that you do in your book should reference your studio work. This criterion
evaluates the level to which your studio work is emphatically evolved, supported,
justified and explained in your book. It is imperative that this be seen as a
developmental process – it should be continuously taking place as you develop
your work, not simply after the fact. Your Investigation workbook is an organic
work, not a scrapbook in which you paste what you’ve accomplished. It should
grow and develop with your studio work and reflect that fact.

In your final exam in 2012, the weighting of these criteria, the amount for which each
counts, will depend upon whether you are taking High or Standard level. But for
now, you should begin to acquaint yourself with them and learn to understand what
each means. The more you understand them and rely upon your knowledge of them,
the better you will understand Mrs. Thomas’s critiques of your work and the feedback
you will receive.

You will receive periodic reviews and feedback from Mrs. Thomas. They will
involve direct reference to these criteria.

Expectations

In your first year, you will be expected to develop a familiarity and a fluency with
these criteria. In addition, you will be required to develop a series of studio works
based upon a theme of your choice. Mrs. Thomas’s main job will be to help guide you
in the development of your ideas and help introduce you to media and techniques that
might enhance your ideas.

Your pace throughout the first year will be your own, but you will be expected to
complete at least one major, finished studio work per month. These must be
related to the theme you’ve begun to develop and all relevant investigation should
accompany the creation in the workbook. Mrs. Thomas will ask for all completed
artworks on the last school day of every month for review.

Think of a camera. Your theme is the lens through which you approach your work. It
can, of course, change and evolve (indeed, it should!) and that change and evolution
should be well documented in the Investigation workbook.

Monthly work

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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011
Every month, you will be asked to approach your theme through a different “filter” –
a way of considering your theme which can help you develop new ideas regarding
your overall theme. You may select from the list below to help aid you in getting
your monthly projects completed:

• Self (you, your identity, self image, self-esteem) or dark self (see C.G. Jung)
• Family or ethnic group (not necessarily yours)
• Science & Technology
• Dreams/the surreal world,/alternate reality/questioning reality
• Society/Public vs. Private
• Gender issues/ Sexual politics
• Capitalism/ (Free)Trade/Economic equality/Globalism
• Epistemology (ie. how we know what we know)/TOK
• Conflict/resolution/war/peace
• Art/History/Art History/Interpretation
• Origins/Beginnings/Endings/divisions in time
• Age/Adolescence/Biological growth/evolution
• Location
• Power
• Symbols/Systems of Meaning/Codes
• Kitsch/Taste/Fashion
• Story/Narrative
• Humor/dark humor/
• Shock/Horror/Ugliness
Any other suitable (and approved by Mrs. Thomas) filter you might want to consider

Take your theme (for instance, feminism) and look at it through the filter of one of
these topics (say, Kitsch/Taste). Your month’s project will involve developing an
approach, an idea, experimenting with media and techniques that compliment that
idea, researching the idea and eventually creating an artwork that embodies your idea.
So you might end up creating a Jeff Koons-like piece with a feminist message.

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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011
IB Visual Arts Year 1 – List of Studio work accomplished
Month Work Title(s) Media Used Describe briefly

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

Crop this down and paste it inside the back cover of your sketchbook. Keep it
updated. It will help you keep track of what you have done and what remains to be
done.

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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011
Studio etiquette

The art studio is your artistic home in the school. It is a state-of-the-art facility
purpose built for your two-year creative journey. A great deal of your work will be
done at home but you will also be working in the studio and using the materials and
tools kept here. Please keep in mind that other students need to use these as well.
Therefore, if we all abide by certain expectations in the studio, we’ll all benefit from
it and from each other’s work:

• All work and materials should be stored away.


• All tools (especially brushes) should be properly cleaned and stored away.
• All tables and flat surfaces should be kept free of paint, varnishes, dust, clay,
ink and other working materials.
• Food and drink are off limits
• Messes on the floor (both wet and dry) should be swept or mopped up
immediately and certainly before leaving the studio.
• The patio is for our use, but should always be kept clear of objects and tools,
free from paint and spray marks.
• Sinks must be properly used – paint residue, refuse and traces of materials
must not be permitted to collect in the basins. No volatile or oil-based
solvents may be washed down the sinks in any quantity. All sediments (clay,
plaster, etc) and acrylics must be washed up in the sinks in the main art studio
area with the sediment trap. The sink in the darkroom should not be used.
• Mrs. Thomas’s office should be kept tidy and treated with respect
(conferences often take place in the office during class).
• Respect for other students’ work is imperative.
• Additional expectations may be introduced as the year progresses.

Deadlines

Arguably, the most important skill you will learn in your early work in the IB
Diploma program is meeting deadlines. You will be expected to produce 18-23
finished works of art and some 300 pages of investigative research in the workbook
over the two year period. The only way you will be able to meet these requirements
is by meeting the deadlines set up by Mrs. Thomas.

IWB’s will be checked every other Thursday. There will be no way to improve an
IWB grade after the fact, so make sure you are ready for each IWB check and review
the IWB requirements each time until you know them by heart.

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IB 1 Beginning of Year Information – Mrs. Thomas 2010-2011

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